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Nikon Capture NX Software for Windows and Mac
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Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Capture NX is Fantastic!
(5 out of 5) by J. Carr on Jan 5, 2007 (Long Island, NY)Nikon's Capture NX software is powerful and easy to use.
It can be used on Nikon's proprietary NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) files as well as standard JPEG and TIFF files
I recommend watching the online tutorials at Nikon's website. The tutorials are very well done. They may help you decide whether the product is for and if you purchase it, you will find the tutorials have shown you how to make very sophisticated photo editing enhancements without ever picking up the manual.
This software provides the most versatility if you are editing NEF files. The NEF file captures all the information that came through the camera lens when the photo was taken. The software allows you to change the camera's "original" settings of white balance, exposure value, sharpening value, and color mode and more. If the lens created a vignetting problem, you can remove it. Files in JPEG or TIFF mode can be edited as well but not to the same extent as NEF files.
The changes you make appear in the interface in chronological order and are stored with the file. The original file can always be retrieved by deselecting the changes that were made.
Nikon allows you to download Capture NX for a thirty-day trial period. A fantastic idea! I recommend waiting to download it until you have the time to really to work with it.
If you are adept at using photoshop, you might not think this product is for you.
If you are new to photo editing, you might find that this product is all you will ever need, especially if you shoot in NEF format.
I am a fairly skilled photoshop user and yet, I found that this product has enhanced my abilities in photo editing. I think it's fantastic!
It can be used on Nikon's proprietary NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) files as well as standard JPEG and TIFF files
I recommend watching the online tutorials at Nikon's website. The tutorials are very well done. They may help you decide whether the product is for and if you purchase it, you will find the tutorials have shown you how to make very sophisticated photo editing enhancements without ever picking up the manual.
This software provides the most versatility if you are editing NEF files. The NEF file captures all the information that came through the camera lens when the photo was taken. The software allows you to change the camera's "original" settings of white balance, exposure value, sharpening value, and color mode and more. If the lens created a vignetting problem, you can remove it. Files in JPEG or TIFF mode can be edited as well but not to the same extent as NEF files.
The changes you make appear in the interface in chronological order and are stored with the file. The original file can always be retrieved by deselecting the changes that were made.
Nikon allows you to download Capture NX for a thirty-day trial period. A fantastic idea! I recommend waiting to download it until you have the time to really to work with it.
If you are adept at using photoshop, you might not think this product is for you.
If you are new to photo editing, you might find that this product is all you will ever need, especially if you shoot in NEF format.
I am a fairly skilled photoshop user and yet, I found that this product has enhanced my abilities in photo editing. I think it's fantastic!
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
Capture NX is interesting
(4 out of 5) by A. Cheng on Jan 4, 2007 (Plano, TX USA)I have been using various photo editors over the years and haven't found one that does it all. I haven't tried Photoshop because of its high price and steep learning curve. What prompted me to get Capture NX was my desire to shoot RAW format in my new Nikon D80.
Why shoot RAW? This can be a whole other story, but RAW is the best image you can get from a digital camera. It is compressed, but RAW takes truer colors than JPEG. Plus it has more information about a photo for better editing.
All Nikon DSLR's come with Project which is a rudimentary photo manager. All it does well is convert RAW to JPEG. Other photo editors can edit RAW, but their capabilities are usually limited.
I first heard about Capture NX from a few web sites and Nikon offers a 30-day trial. Once I started using the trial version I was hooked. It doesn't do everything, but it has some really powerful capabilities. Nikon has a new term for image editing they call D-Lighting. I guess that means Dynamic Lighting. The closest comparison is Auto-Exposure. It sharpens and adjusts lighting on photos. I use this a lot as it does a pretty good job of enhancing a photo. Some of Nikon's new DSLR's like the D80 and D40 now have D-Lighting as part of the camera's built-in editing capabilities.
Another "cool" feature are the "Control Points". These are points that you can be put anywhere on a photo and selectively adjust brightness, contrast and saturation. You can adjust how wide or small of an area it adjusts. This is really good for adjusting a wide area in a photo. Like darkening a background to hide it or enhancing a background to make it pop out. This is much easier than other photo editors where they either adjust the whole photo, or you have to carefully mask an area off. Problem with masking is the adjustments are usually too noticeable. With Capture NX the adjustments with the Control Point are blended pretty well so you can't really see the adjustment. It also has the normal red-eye reduction and other adjustments. It has a lot of sophisticated adjustments for light curves and RGB histograms. I haven't mastered those yet, but they do help. Noise reduction is another plus.
What is missing from this program are some basic cloning tools. Many times I like to clone an area on to a similar area to remove hot spots or smooth them up. Capture NX just allows you to tone it down, but not complete cover it up. I also wish it had more basic batch tools like renaming many photos at once. The renaming process is overly complicated.
This editor can be used with any JPEG or TIFF photo. You can also compensate for dust on a DSLR CCD sensor by taking a reference dust-off photo and then Capture NX can use that photo to remove dust particles on images.
Who should use this software? I would not recommend this to beginners. It is powerful, but many of the tools are not for beginners. If you own a Nikon DSLR then this would be good for editing RAW. I have been taking photos for years and have owned about 5 SLR cameras and this tool is teaching me new things about photos in general. I would also not consider this software a replacement for Photoshop, but it does do a lot for the price.
Why shoot RAW? This can be a whole other story, but RAW is the best image you can get from a digital camera. It is compressed, but RAW takes truer colors than JPEG. Plus it has more information about a photo for better editing.
All Nikon DSLR's come with Project which is a rudimentary photo manager. All it does well is convert RAW to JPEG. Other photo editors can edit RAW, but their capabilities are usually limited.
I first heard about Capture NX from a few web sites and Nikon offers a 30-day trial. Once I started using the trial version I was hooked. It doesn't do everything, but it has some really powerful capabilities. Nikon has a new term for image editing they call D-Lighting. I guess that means Dynamic Lighting. The closest comparison is Auto-Exposure. It sharpens and adjusts lighting on photos. I use this a lot as it does a pretty good job of enhancing a photo. Some of Nikon's new DSLR's like the D80 and D40 now have D-Lighting as part of the camera's built-in editing capabilities.
Another "cool" feature are the "Control Points". These are points that you can be put anywhere on a photo and selectively adjust brightness, contrast and saturation. You can adjust how wide or small of an area it adjusts. This is really good for adjusting a wide area in a photo. Like darkening a background to hide it or enhancing a background to make it pop out. This is much easier than other photo editors where they either adjust the whole photo, or you have to carefully mask an area off. Problem with masking is the adjustments are usually too noticeable. With Capture NX the adjustments with the Control Point are blended pretty well so you can't really see the adjustment. It also has the normal red-eye reduction and other adjustments. It has a lot of sophisticated adjustments for light curves and RGB histograms. I haven't mastered those yet, but they do help. Noise reduction is another plus.
What is missing from this program are some basic cloning tools. Many times I like to clone an area on to a similar area to remove hot spots or smooth them up. Capture NX just allows you to tone it down, but not complete cover it up. I also wish it had more basic batch tools like renaming many photos at once. The renaming process is overly complicated.
This editor can be used with any JPEG or TIFF photo. You can also compensate for dust on a DSLR CCD sensor by taking a reference dust-off photo and then Capture NX can use that photo to remove dust particles on images.
Who should use this software? I would not recommend this to beginners. It is powerful, but many of the tools are not for beginners. If you own a Nikon DSLR then this would be good for editing RAW. I have been taking photos for years and have owned about 5 SLR cameras and this tool is teaching me new things about photos in general. I would also not consider this software a replacement for Photoshop, but it does do a lot for the price.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent Product
(5 out of 5) by M. Anderson on Jun 13, 2007 (West Linn, Oregon)I shoot Nikon cameras (D80 and D70) in raw mode as well as non-Nikon point and shoot cameras. I also have and use Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe LightRoom. The latest release of Nikon Capture NX has caused me to change my work flow because of the ease of use. The U-Point Technology really makes a difference (once you figure out how to use it) and in most cases it eliminates the need to use Photoshop layers, etc. This program has saved me many hours in doing photo edits. From a work flow standpoint, I use Nikon View first to review raw files and then I move to Nikon Capture NX for edits, adjustments and sharpening. Only in some cases do I need to use PhotoShop now.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
The Very Best Nikon Raw Converter
(5 out of 5) by Anne e Nonomous on Dec 5, 2006 (Boston, MA United States)This program is the best Nikon RAW converter available. Images look much better with Capture NX than conversions through Adobe Photoshop or adobe Lightroom. It's not even close. And the noise reduction for high ISO images is superb. You need this program to get the very best from your Nikon Raw files.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Works Great
(5 out of 5) by R. Yanchick on Feb 16, 2007Originally the program was a little slow on my AMD Athlon 64 3200 with 1GB ram. After I applied all of the updates as well as the new version 1.1 update the program is at least 250% faster than prior to the updates. This program is right up there with Photoshop when it comes to photo editing.